The major research objective is to ascertain how information resources in an urban environment can be organized to encourage the participation of various publics in the political process. This objective is rooted in a normative concern that the political process should enable various subgroups to realize their diverse values in the policy decisions of the community as a whole. The study began with a major survey of over 1000 citizens in the Triangle region of North Carolina (including Chapel Hill, Durham & Raleigh). This initial survey established patterns of citizen need and citizen satisfaction in many areas of their lives including home, friends, work, and the policy. Special attention was given to discerning citizens' information utilization habits and needs. Also, the citizen's perspective on the role of the political process in helping him secure satisfactions was studied closely. The findings from this initial survey provide a "baseline" understanding of a large population of citizens who then continue to participate in a panel design study. The research design is a rather complex one which interweaves information releases and a laboratory type community-wide experiment with three waves of sample surveys. This research design is intended to permit the study of information utilization both in a natural, political context, and also in a more controlled situation so as to permit exploration of the power of information as an independent variable or as a source of social change in the urban context. The field operations of this project will be virtually completed by the close of our second year, May 31, 1973. Support for a full third year in which to prepare, analyze, and report the data from this project is now being sought. Initial findings are promising, and we hope to have some tested answers and guidelines as to how political structures and information resources can facilitate public participation in the urban policy making process.